Saturday, March 7, 2009

Andy and Reed go to Jimmy Fallon, show #1...

The other day Andy and I went to see the studio taping first ever episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.




The show was taped on Monday March 2nd at 5:30 PM and aired at 12:35 am later that night. Good buddy Andy Brick is a pulsating-head-style musical genius, who also happens to be a good friend and all around good egg. Rare combination of qualities!

I think Andy was surprised by how much he enjoyed the festivities. I told him later it felt like I was "leading him to slaughter" but he warmed up to it quite nicely.

Self portrait waiting in line before the show:


The house band is called "The Roots". I thought I would hate them, but they are really pretty good. They played a long set to start off before the show. Man was it loud!! I should know one thing...if Simon likes a band, bring your ear plugs!



Here we are in the crowd, top left (click to enlarge):


Guests were Robert Deniro, Justin Timberlake, and Van Morrison. There were uneven bits, but they're just getting their footing, so let's give them a break for now. One thing called "Lick it for $10, where they gave audience members a $10 bill to lick something (looked promising at first but fizzled), Also a "clip" of a "movie" that Deniro and Fallon "did together" was a little lame, but kudos to Deniro for being a good sport.






The good bit was called "Slow Jammin' the news", a bit with Fallon in camera foreground talking about current events and the Roots in background with the singer commenting on the news bits with a sexy funk undertone. Too hard to explain here, but definitely funny.

As you'd expect, Deniro was very shy in an almost threatening way (Jimmy made him come off well), Timberlake was extremely charming, and Van Morrison was shaky. He's got a great voice, but I didn't love the song, and the sound was not great.

I think the coolest part - and I love all these tapings, but this was unique - was to see the people behind the scenes so excited. For one Loren Michaels was there hanging out sidestage, and there were a lot of exec looking people who were thumbs upping each another, so as if to say "We got a show here!"

We'll see if it flies...


On The Net:

Andy's place
episode 1 of Jimmy Fallon